Brian’s life is not just another brick in the wall: Reframing the metaphor of science teaching

Abstract

Current shifts in national curricula have pushed teachers to focus on the epistemic practices of the discipline and embed their pedagogical practices within generative learning environments. We argue that there is a need to address the metaphor that best represents this shift. Building on the picture of education pushed by Pink Floyd and themes at the center of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, we argue that teaching should align with the concepts of authoring and authority of knowledge to align learning outcomes to the disciplinary concepts being studied. We use science education as the basis of this argument as we argue that teaching metaphors such as Sage on the Stage and Guide from the Side, need to be replaced with Teacher as Negotiator if we are to have success in helping students fully participate in generative learning environments.

Keywords:

• Teacher metaphor
• generative learning
• authoring
• authority

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Safety and mental health issues have gained some momentum in recent years—­particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. These important foundational issues for schools are intimately related to the primal resources listed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian Hand

Brian Hand is a science educator from the University of Iowa. His research focus on language use in science classrooms, generative learning environments and argument-based inquiry.

Andy Cavagnetto

Andy Cavagnetto is a science educator from Washington State University. His research focus is on generative learning environments and argument-based inquiry.